Thursday, March 3, 2016

Happiness lengthens time

Similar to Revenge this is a collection of connected short stories, though the connections are minor. If we're going to compare the two, the biggest difference is Revenge was hard to put down and this was easy to fall asleep to. Also I finished this book back in December and it is now February and the amount of this book I remember is low. Oops.

The stories are quiet stories. Sometimes they're odd, sometimes they're sad, sometimes they're kind of boring. I remember snatches of stories. There's a woman who owns an antique store and she watches the customers, regular and strange, that come in. There's a woman who seems incapable of reading social cues and is constantly annoying her neighbors who do all they can to avoid her. There's a woman that gives pedicures and also spies on a neighbor. A "vegetable man" with a sick son.

Part of the issue might be that, in general, collections of short stories are a hard sell for me. Typically if they're all by one author (Revenge or stuff by Stephen King) there's a better chance I'll enjoy. But sometimes it can be hard to get into the story and by the time I'm finally on board, the story is over and I have to begin the process over again.

There was nothing I can think of that made me dislike the book. The writing is pretty and well-done, but wasn't enough to pull me through some of the slower parts. Towards the end I got more into the stories but then again, I can't really recall them now and even skimming through the book isn't bringing up too many memories.

Apologies that this is a useless review. I can't say that it's either good or bad. Mostly it just wasn't memorable.

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About Me

I started this blog as a means to start writing again after I let that hobby stagnate after college. I went with writing about books because it's the topic I am most likely to accost a stranger about, so I figured why not bother lots of strangers simultaneously here. I read primarily contemporary fiction, usually of the dark humor sort, but I'm willing to dabble in most genres.